Richard Marks, Director, Human Services Regulator: Good afternoon everybody. We'll just give everyone another minute or so to join. I'm not seeing a lot of people come in. I might kick off. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to our second Guidance Information webinar. My name is Richard Marks. I'm a director in the Human Services Regulator. I would like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we meet today, pay my respects to Elders past and present. Our Auslan interpreters for today are Ali and Maxine, and the session will be captioned by Bernadette, and instructions are in the chat. This session will be recorded and shared on the Social Services Regulator website for anyone who hasn't been able to attend today. For today's agenda, we're going to introduce you to Jonathan, for anyone who hasn't met him yet, and take you through the new guidance materials that are now available on the SSR (Social Services Regulator) website. The guidance can help you understand your obligations under the Social Services Regulator scheme and provide information on how we're approaching the registration process. We'll also be answering some of the questions submitted by our audience. You can submit a question using the chat function, and we'll try to answer as many as we can as we go, or in the discussion session at the end. I do ask you to keep your questions to those that are about the guidance. Areas that might need clarification, or areas for your future guidance. I'll now welcome Jonathan to the screen.
Jonathan Kaplan, Social Services Regulator: Thank you, Rich, and thank you, everybody, for joining us today. I too would like to acknowledge Aboriginal people who are joining us today and also pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. And as I said, thank you for finding some time on a cold and slightly windy and wintry Tuesday afternoon. This is the second of our sessions where we're starting to go through and talk about the guidance that we released several weeks ago. And from my perspective, this is a really important part of what we're doing in our initial phase for the regulator. Because from my perspective, it's very important that we are able to understand what information, education and guidance will assist you in transitioning into the new scheme. And, therefore, any questions we've got, and observations, really help us to improve and refine the guidance we provide, but also to best understand the context that all of you are operating in.
I commenced as the inaugural Social Services Regulator back in early February, and I have spent the last nearly ‑ well, about five months focusing on three things. One ‑ and very importantly ‑ going out and meeting with a very, very broad range of stakeholders and duty‑holders, and that's been very important to understand the range of organisations that exist within the range of sectors that sit within the Social Services sector more broadly that we will be regulating from 1 July. I've had the opportunity to travel from as far as west as Warrnambool up to Mildura and also to Wangaratta, Shepparton, and Bendigo as well as the La Trobe Valley. And what I've been able to do is meet with organisations that are large, that are small, that operate across one specific sector or a whole range of service sectors that sit within the remit of the Social Services Regulator. And what's been very clear from all those conversations and meetings I've had is the shared commitment that everybody I've talked to has in relation to ensuring that vulnerable Victorians receive safe Social Services. And from that, it really has emphasised where the focus of the SSR needs to be in its first year, which is around being able to support organisations to understand changes to the regulatory environment, and for those who are entirely new to the regulatory system, to really support them with good‑quality information, education, and guidance, because what I've seen and heard is that the very, very, very vast majority of organisations ‑ and the individuals who work within them ‑ are very committed to good services to the most vulnerable Victorians.
So, sessions like today really help support that. The other thing is there's a range of new requirements but also there's a range of existing and enduring requirements. So, for all organisations that have been subject to child‑safe standards, there's been no changes there. So, we will take a blended approach as we commence operation, which is for new elements, we'll work with organisations to support them to compliance. However, where we identify significant risk of harm or significant harm, particularly in relation to existing and enduring requirements, we do have a range of new and modern regulatory tools that we will use if required. So, I've been meeting with a lot of stakeholders and duty‑holders, and that's been great. The other thing I have been very focused on is being able to develop the information, guidance, education materials that now sit upon the SSR website. The website has got guidance material about the Standards, about the registration process, and we are starting to share a range of other similar webinars that we've recorded or transcribed, so that there's a beginning of a resource base that should assist you and your organisations in preparation and transition to the new scheme.
The third very important thing I have been focused on has been getting ready for the new scheme in terms of the organisation itself. We are very fortunate that a range of very experienced staff will transfer from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to the Social Services Regulator on 1 July, but also building the organisation and recruiting for the right skills and right experience in order to be able to support the work into the future. So, it's been a very busy time, from my perspective, and for all of those working on it. I also appreciate it's a very busy time for a whole range of you, out there, providing services, as we come to the end of a financial year, a range of other changes and other things that are going on, many not specifically related to the work that we do but other regulatory or system changes or other things. So, I think that, as much as possible, to be able to keep things as simple as possible is a real focus of mine and hopefully of benefit for you. So, the feedback through this session, that either we can answer via the chat function or we can answer verbally about enhancing our information, guidance and education materials, are really, really critically important. So, very, very pleased to be meeting with you today. As I said, this is one of many of these types of webinars that I've done, and look forward to working with you in the future. I'll how hand over to Anthony Kolmus, who will take us through the Social Services Standards and the Guidance that hopefully simply assists you to understand what's required by you and your organisations as from 1 July. Thank you.
Anthony Kolmus, Director, Human Services Regulator: Thanks, Jonathan. Thanks for that. Hi, everyone. As Jonathan said, I'm Anthony Kolmus, Director of the Human Services Regulator that currently sits within the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. And it's our staff that will transfer to form effectively the foundation of the new Regulator. Probably most of you, at some point, will have had contact with staff from either our Child Safeguarding Team, which looks after the Victorian Carers Register and disqualified carers checks, or our Standards and Regulation Team, who look after providers and the independent review process that's been in place up until last December. Or our Regulatory Compliance and Enforcement Team, who work primarily in the Supported Residential Services space, but also across some of those other areas. So, in a new world, post‑1 July, you'll be familiar with some of the staff that you'll still have contact with. I'm going to skip pretty quickly through this first slide because I'm assuming that most of you will be aware of this information. Jonathan very kindly pointed out this morning that we now have 14 business days until the start of the scheme, which I think sent shivers up most of our spines. But we will work through it, and I think a reminder for all of us ‑ everyone on this call ‑ that 1 July, yes, is when the new scheme starts, but it's really, in a sense, just the start of another whole phase to this process as we all get our heads around exactly what the new scheme will look like.
A really important difference between the current team that I lead and the organisation that Jonathan will be leading is that the SSR will be completely independent from the department. Jonathan will report through the Minister to the parliament, as it currently stands. And one of the reasons, in fact, for establishing a new regulator is the fact that, as a regulator, we actually sit within the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, which ‑ given that we also regulate parts of the department and, in the future, even more so ‑ a clear conflict of interest. That was one reason the government, and, in fact, the secretary of the department as well, was really keen to try and move on from.
So, three of the key elements of the scheme are that, firstly, in the future, all organisation have to be registered to deliver Social Services. That's a move away from current arrangements, whereby some services are currently able to be provided under the Children, Youth and Families and Disability Acts without being registered. Secondly, obviously, the Social Services Standards that Jonathan spoke to as well. And, thirdly, the worker and carer exclusion scheme, which, although it was announced just a few weeks ago, the thinking had been that the bill going through Parliament would delay the introduction of this scheme until 2026, that's now beginning on 1 July and there's certainly more information sessions coming up about exactly how that will be implemented and what that means for providers as from day one in the next week or so.
As Jonathan said, the SSR has a completely different tool kit, much more modern with a broader range of tools and activities that the Regulator has at its disposal, including much improved information‑sharing provisions. A lot of the Acts we work under at the moment, it would be fair to say that the information‑sharing provisions are pretty cloudy. It's actually been quite difficult at times to work out exactly what information we can and can't share under the different pieces of legislation we currently work with. The new Act really improves all of that, makes it much clearer who we can share information with, and ‑ more importantly ‑ who we can get information from. And I think that will be of benefit both to us as a Regulator but, importantly, also for you guys as service providers ‑ hopefully, where we can minimise the amount of times we need to ask for information from you and instead get it from either the department or TAC or other funding bodies.
Next slide. Thanks. Social Services covered by the new scheme. Again, I imagine most of you are pretty familiar with this. So, that's the list of services that are included in the scheme. Just to add to that, so really clearly, that does include the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing itself, so any services directly delivered by the department that are considered social services will be in scope, and that includes Child Protection, Secure Care, Forensic Disability Services, and some of the Children and Family Services run directly by the department. We also, obviously, will be regulating the not‑for‑profit sector, so the community services, disability services funded by the department or by TAC and WorkSafe. We also will be regulating supported residential services, which are for‑profit services which don't actually receive any operational funding. They do receive small amounts of funding through the department for maintenance and a few other bits and pieces, but they're not technically funded services. So, and I should say too that the range of services we will be regulating range from ‑ I think the smallest, I've been told that there's a couple of TAC services that literally have one client, where it's particularly built around a family member that's been in a motor vehicle accident ‑ through to services that support thousands of people. So, the full gamut of organisations that we'll be regulating.
Next slide. As Jonathan mentioned, one of the things we've really been focusing on ‑ and Jonathan has really pushed ‑ has been to help organisations get ready for this change. Help people understand what the new Standards are, what they're going to have to have in place to meet the Standards, and what the registration process looks like. So, that's been a really big area of focus and there's already guidance up on the SSR website about the Standards; what they are, and, broadly speaking, what organisations will need to do to meet them. In terms of the registration process, again, I am assuming most of you are familiar with the fact that, if you are already registered to provide disability services or to provide services under the Children, Youth and Families Act, then you will automatically be registered on day one of the new scheme for those services that are registered. Where services have been funded by the department, or in some cases by the TAC, but haven't had to be registered, they will be phased in to be registered over the next 12 months. And the transitional regulations spell out, I think it's the Family Violence Services that have to have their applications in by the end of September. I think the homelessness services have to have their applications in for registration by the end of this year. Sexual assault services are due to have their applications in by March of 2025. And the TAC and WorkSafe services have to apply for registration by June of 2025. So, that's quite a deliberately staggered approach to, again, assist organisations to have time to meet the requirements of the registration process and, quite frankly, also from our perspective, in terms of bringing on that many organisations. All up, we think there will be somewhere between 700 and 800 organisations registered under the Social Services Regulator.
In addition, we're still working this out, but we think there will be another thousand or so organisations in scope for the Regulator under the Child Safe Standards. Now, those organisations don't have to be registered for that scheme but they will be in scope of the Regulator and the Regulator's powers in relation to those Standards.
Next slide. Thanks. When we developed the guidance materials that are currently on the website, we talked with a range of people about how we were intending on structuring up the materials and testing the early drafts of the materials. That was tested with some basic stakeholder consultation sessions. We also ran them past the Social Services Taskforce that's been operating now for a couple of years to provide advice and support to the government in relation to the implementation of the new regulator. We've got a registration pilot currently under way to test the registration documents and registration process, and that includes both small and large organisations, to try and get a mix of what the process looks like across a range of areas and range of types of services. So far, the feedback has been reasonably good about the guidance that's been put out. But this is very much a first go. This is, you know, from our perspective, a very early stage of getting guidance out to the sectors about what meeting the new Standards looks like. So, if you feel like either it could be laid out better, it could be laid out differently, or that there's more detail you want in particular areas, then please feel free to provide us with that feedback. And there will be a series of ‑ over the next week or so ‑ either through the website or there will be email addresses provided, where you can get in touch with us to provide us with that feedback.
We're conscious too, at the moment that the guidance we provided is quite generic. It relates to the six Standards, and what we think will be required to demonstrate compliance with those. But it's not tailored to the different sectors, and we're conscious that there's a really broad range of service providers and sectors that we'll be regulating. They all have very different pressures, challenges, types of service delivered, whether that's a supported residential service, whether that's a sexual assault service and family violence service, a disability service ‑ they all have their own characteristics and challenges. Over time, we expect that we'll be able to adapt and ‑ as we understand each of the sectors we'll be regulating a bit better ‑ that hopefully we'll be able to tailor some of the guidance around the Standards and what compliance looks like to those different sectors. Realistically, that's going to take a bit of time to work through. But it's certainly something that, in the end, that that's what we expect to be working towards. But for the moment, the guidance that's up on the website will give providers a really good sense, at a generic level, of what's required to comply.
Next slide. Jonathan talked about the fact that the Standards are not completely new. There's various elements of the new Social Service Standards that actually correlate pretty closely to either the Human Service Standards or the SRS sector, or the accommodation and personal support standards. So, if you have been complying with those Standards, whether through independent processes or through monitoring by our own team, you probably are in a pretty good position to be able to be compliant with the new Standards. You're probably already well on that journey, and certainly our expectation would be that you continue to be able to demonstrate and continue to comply with those areas of the Standards that you're already having to.
Where the Social Services Standards are now ‑ and I'm thinking particularly there about the Standard around safe service environment, so facilities ‑ that's quite new, and there's a different approach in there. So, our expectations around your ability to comply with that will be a bit more graduated. We'll certainly be providing more guidance, on that area, and give people ‑ within reason ‑ a little bit of leeway to make sure that they're up to standard with those Standards. There's also a couple of elements to the other Standards, whilst the Standard as a whole might be something that's pretty familiar to you, there might be particular elements ‑ and I guess I'm thinking here around some of the, for some sectors, some of the Standards around client advocacy, client voice, supporting people to have a voice ‑ will be quite a new expectation. So, that's an area that, again, we'll be providing guidance and support on, and we'll bring people up to speed with the new expectations.
Next slide. Like I said, and as Jonathan said, there's information about all six Standards on the website at the moment. Under the Guidance Materials tab. I really strongly encourage you to, if you haven't already, have a look at those guidance materials. Like I said, the feedback to date has been pretty positive, that we've done a reasonably good job of both making it as clear as possible and giving you as much information as possible about what compliance might look like. In particular ‑ and if you want to flick to the next slide ‑ each of the guidance documents includes an appendix, which really spells out in a fair amount of detail as to the actions that we think you would probably need ‑ organisations would need - to have in place in order to be able to be progressing towards compliance. The documents and other evidence, other types of evidence, that you might need to be able to provide in order for, if we do come asking questions about whether you're compliant. And what success would look like ‑ what does it look like when you're meeting the requirements of the Standards or the sub-elements of those Standards? So, again, really encouraging you to have a look. And likewise, if you think there's any key things missing, or you think we could be more detailed or clearer in some areas, please feel free to reach out and give us a yell.
So, with that, I might hand over to Clare Moran from our Transition Team, who's going to take you through the registration process.
Clare Moran, Manager, System Reform and Workforce: Thanks, Anthony. I have been working on the guidance specifically. So, thank you to everyone who's contributed. As Anthony mentioned, we have done some targeted consultation to try and make the materials as simple and easy to understand as possible. So, this slide is about preparing you for registration. Registration is a really important part of the scheme. We have a stand‑alone page on the Social Services Regulator website that covers registration and has all this information there, so I would really encourage you to go there and have a look.
The first point to note is that providers of in‑scope services must register with the Social Services Regulator. And I just wanted to make a comment there about the basis for registration, and that is that it's the types of services you provide. So, what that means is that there could be a provider where they have some services they provide that are required to be registered and some services that are not required to be registered. So, the requirements of the scheme apply to all the registered services. So, there's no cost for registration, and I think as Anthony mentioned earlier, we have three different service provider groups for registration. Each group has a different process and time frame for their registration ‑ and I'll talk about these on the next slide.
Registration aims to make sure providers can provide safe services before they offer those services. So, this should better protect service users and prevent harm. It also aims to improve public confidence in the expertise and reputation of registered providers and also provides a level playing field for social services providers.
Next slide, please. So, as has been mentioned earlier, registration is a staged process. And while I'm not going to talk through all the detail on this slide, it is available on our registration web page, and the point of this slide is just to give you a snapshot of the different groups and their respective timings for registration. And the reason for the different groups and the different timing, there are a couple of those. So, what this does is it recognises existing requirements for service providers. So, for example, some providers have already been required to be registered with the Human Services Regulator, and so they will automatically be registered into the new scheme. Additionally, the purpose of having a staged process is that it gives the sector time to prepare for the requirements. So, for some, registration will be quite new, so this allows time to prepare and digest the guidance. And it also gives the new Regulator time to prepare itself and, also, process the registrations in a timely fashion.
Next slide, please. So, your starting point to understand registration is there's two information sheets that we have on our web page. So, there's information sheets for Group 1 and Group 2. So, these provide really step‑by‑step guidance on the process. They outline the types of information and evidence that you'll need to provide as part of your registration. They outline the key timelines and how the process begins. And, also, provides further detail to help you identify the group that your provider is in and all the steps you'll need to go through to complete your registration.
Next slide, please, Alex. Great. So, with the exception of providers whose registration will be automatically transitioning ‑ so, that is Group 1 ‑ broadly speaking, for everyone else, the registration process looks like this. So, the first step is validation of information, if this applies to you. So, in some cases, there will be some information already on file about your provider, so where that is the case, you'll be asked to validate that information. The second step is you'll be asked to build your registration record so that it has full details about your provider and the services offered. The third step is demonstrating suitability. So, you'll be asked to demonstrate your provider's suitability to provide services, which includes providing information about your key personnel and the premises the service is delivered on. And then the final, fourth, step is you'll be asked to confirm that you understand the requirements of the Social Services Standards, and Anthony has already talked to you about some of the guidance that's available for you to help understand the Standards.
Next slide. Thanks, Alex. So, that's what we've got available for you now on registration. We are working hard to produce more guidance because we understand there's more detail and information that people would like. So, this slide just takes you through what will be coming soon on the website. We have more guidance on registration, so in particular about demonstrating suitability and what evidence, specifically, and documents you'll be asked to provide in order to demonstrate your suitability. We also have some information to help providers understand if they do need to register and if they are in scope, and which services that might be for.
We have further information to support you to meet the Social Services Standards, so that includes an essential information sheet that covers all the Standards ‑ that's in addition to the six individual sheets we already have on the six Standards. And a document that was prepared that compares the Social Services Standards with the Human Services Standards. So, you might find this useful if you're familiar with the Human Services Standards and the requirements and it, also, steps through what some of the key changes are. We've also got some guidance coming on notifications, and they are requirements that come about once you are registered. So, there are things that you must tell the Regulator about once you are registered. For example, some types of incidents and some types of changes to key information that you provided at registration. So, we're working on that guidance right now. In the longer term, we're also looking to develop a self‑assessment tool as we understand this is something that there are requests for. And the only other thing that I forgot to put on that slide is that we also have some information about the Regulator's approach. So, Jonathan talked a little bit about this earlier, about what the Regulator would be focusing on overall once it comes into operation on July 1, and how it would make decisions, and what some of the principles might be, so the regulatory approach content gives further information on that.
And I also just wanted to remind you that we have a recording of our Meet the Regulator webinar, which we held on 21 May ‑ that's available on the website as well. So, if you missed that, you can view that and we'll put a link in the chat to that in a minute. I think that's all from me, and I'll hand back to Rich.
Richard Marks, Director, Human Services Regulator: Thanks very much, Clare and Anthony and Jonathan. So, for the next part, we'll jump to some questions from our audience. We've had a few come through, some of which have been answered in the chat. There is one there about: Keen to understand the approach where agencies do not control the residential units, i.e., they're owned by DFFH and maintained by them? I might throw to Anthony for that one initially.
Anthony Kolmus, Director, Human Services Regulator: Yep. Just finding my mic. Yeah, thanks for that question. I thought that might come up. Tricky situation. At the end of the day, the obligation sits with the service provider. They're the ones providing or delivering the service from that facility. But we already regulate a number of services who don't own the facility that they're operating from, and in some situations we have been actually able, as a Regulator, to, through the provider, put additional pressure on the landlord to, in fact, bring the premises up to standard. We don't regulate the landlords. We're not a Housing regulator, per se. But, yeah, generally, yeah, it's a bit of a dance, might be the best description, of the expectation of the provider in relation to the agreements they have with the landlord, and whether it's the department or anyone else, but also the Regulator, in relation to, making it clear what the expectations are. And I know ‑ I can think of a couple of examples where individual providers have been able to use advice or expectations, written expectations from us as a Regulator, to go back to their landlords with, in terms of expectations about improving the quality of the actual premises. So, probably not a 100%, crystal‑clear answer, and unfortunately it's often not a crystal‑clear situation. But we are conscious that whilst technically the obligation sits with the provider, sometimes that's a bit trickier in terms of how you go about achieving compliance.
Richard Marks, Director, Human Services Regulator: Thanks, Anthony. I think we've got a follow‑up on a question about compliance with the Standards, which I think is sort of crossing over into the completion of the registration record. So, there's two steps here. So, we've got the Social Services Standards and the Regulations that support that. And then you've got the registration requirements. And so we will be contacting all of those organisations that are in Group 1 so that we can get you to validate the information that we have on record for you ‑ so, to make sure that we've got you down for the right services, so we can register you for the right services and gather key information, like key personnel, premises if that's relevant, so we've got a complete registration record for you and we're able to provide you with a registration with the appropriate conditions on it. And those conditions go to the services that you can provide and where you can provide them from. And then there's the compliance with the Social Services Standards, which is ongoing Standards that you're required to comply with. So, hopefully, that answers that question.
And then there's a follow‑up question as well. Yes, you do cross over both processes. You will be automatically registered as a Group 1 organisation, and then you would have to apply to add a new service during that registration process. So, for TAC, if you're not already registered for TAC services ‑ and there are some that are registered for TAC services ‑ if you're not already registered for TAC services but providing them now, you would be registered as a Group 1, deemed registration on 1 July, and we would then contact you to update your record based on those services. And then you would apply post ‑ I think it's from April to June next year ‑ to add the TAC services to that registration as well. Hopefully, that's clear. Just let us know if that hasn't made sense. Great.
Any other questions? I'll just give it a minute or so for people to type, if they need to. Are there any that I've missed? Just someone yell out to me.
Anthony Kolmus, Director, Human Services Regulator: While people are thinking, I might just go back to the worker and carer exclusion scheme for a minute. So, the worker and carer exclusion scheme only applies, I think, there's only about 48 organisations that will be in-scope with that scheme. So, if you're not already providing out‑of‑home care for children and young people, in either foster care or community service‑registered residential units, then you won't be in scope for that part of the new scheme. For those organisations that are in scope, the two areas of work that we're particularly focusing on at the moment, is sorting through, as quickly as we can, how to notify us about allegations under the new scheme ‑ and we expect that, as an interim arrangement, will be a very similar process to what you're currently used to. I.e., there will be a separate notifications that will be specific to allegations. But we'll have more information on that very soon. The other piece of work relates to how you conduct excluded worker checks under the worker and carer exclusion scheme. Also finalising the process for that. Again, it looks like it will be very, very similar to the process you currently use to conduct disqualified worker checks. We tried to line it up as closely as possible to that same process. Again, longer term, there might be another solution, but given this was all sort of put on us just a few weeks ago, we're just working on a couple of interim solutions for the moment. The good news, I think, from a provider perspective is that both those processes should be very, very similar to what you currently use. So, hopefully, it will make that initial transition as smooth as possible.
Richard Marks, Director, Human Services Regulator: Thanks, Anthony. Another question - "Do we have an ETA on when more information and guidance about non‑CIMS incident management processes will be published?" Clare?
Clare Moran, Manager, System Reform and Workforce: So, we're working on that now. And it will be, you know, later this month, before 1 July. We've tried to really provide clarity first on the Standards, then on the registration process, and then it will be on the notifications. So, we understand there's lots of people wanting to use information and we're working on it now as a priority.
Anthony Kolmus, Director, Human Services Regulator: What I can say to that is that we are working closely and having conversations at the moment with both TAC and WorkSafe to try and make sure that that process is as streamlined as possible for providers in that sector. It's looking like reports will be made via a link on the SSR website, which you'll have access to. So, we're just working through exactly what that will look like and how information is then shared between the Regulator, TAC and WorkSafe as well.
Richard Marks, Director, Human Services Regulator: Thanks, Anthony and Clare. There's a question here, "Is there a guidance sheet being developed around the changes to information‑sharing?" I'm not exactly sure if that's information‑sharing between the department and the Regulator or what. Maybe if you could just give us a little clue as to who you're talking about there? While we're waiting for that, we'll just note that ‑ so, the Act gives some broad information‑sharing powers between the SSR and multiple Regulators. So, it simplifies the job of the SSR sharing information with other pertinent authorities. It allows us to share information with the department, with other regulators ‑ such as the Commissioner for Children and Young People. Some of the other regulators, federal regulators aren't covered in that, so we will need an information‑sharing agreement with, for example the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission and the NDIA. But the intention is that we ‑ if information comes to the SSR that is relevant to another regulator - will pass it to them. If others have information that is relevant to our work, we would be seeking the same from them.
Anthony Kolmus, Director, Human Services Regulator: And further to what Rich just said, in addition to the Act, Jonathan has initiated a series of meetings with a lot of the other regulators, and there's also work under way to establish, to begin with before we go into more formalised memorandums of understandings or protocols, an exchange of letters between the new Regulator and a variety of other bodies. So, like Vic Pol, the Commissioner for Children and Young People, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. So, a range of the regulators we most commonly expect to be sharing information with or getting information from, there are letters currently under way to exchange or formalise those arrangements. So, that's very much all happening as we speak.
Richard Marks, Director, Human Services Regulator: Thanks, Anthony. And just ‑ we don't have that many people in today's session, so I think we can go with a slightly different function and we can enable the raise‑hands and so people can ask their questions directly. I think Nicola is going ti sort that out for us. So, if you do have a question, either you can put it in the chat or you can raise your hand and hopefully that's working now.
Richard Marks, Director, Human Services Regulator: I was just gonna say, to the previous question. I know that, as part of the taskforce discussions that have been occurring, VCOSS, in particular, has been very keen that the sector is made aware of what information‑sharing arrangements will exist between the new Regulator and the various other safeguarding bodies, in particular the department. And I imagine for TAC providers, they would also be wanting to know information‑sharing arrangements between the Regulator and TAC, WorkSafe. So, yes, there will be information made available ‑ I'm not sure right at this stage what level of detail, but certainly there will be information made available about what information arrangements we have in conjunction with other safeguarding bodies, and who they are, yep.
Richard Marks, Director, Human Services Regulator: Thanks, Anthony. I don't think there are any questions that I've missed and I can't see any hands up. Again, just giving people a minute to think up any questions. Awkward silence ensues! I'm not seeing any dancing dots and I'm not seeing any hands up. Audience Member 1, thank you. Can we enable Audience Member 1's camera and mic? Thank you.
Audience Member 1: The camera's probably not necessary. Hello. I just thought I would break the silence. I suppose there are a million questions, and ultimately much of this will play out during the implementation. And I'm just wondering, what kind of mechanisms we can have in play during the period of implementation? Because, you know, you can anticipate what you can anticipate. But, for example, I know that lots of agencies are going to now have to put in other mechanisms to address compliance, to address a whole suite of things, and maybe there's much to be shared amongst the agencies where they are like agencies, to establish those things. So, you know, we put in this new scheme, what does that mean in terms of all of the fabric that's been woven together to create, you know, like the Carers Register. So, you take that out, what holes does that leave in current operation? And would we be best served by sharing that and having some, you know, co‑design around how people can fill those holes? Because I think we're going to all be making them up.
Jonathan Kaplan, Social Services Regulator: Audience Member 1, I might answer that question ‑ and nice to see you, and thank you for the question. So, from 1 July, when we are stood up as a new agency, one of the things that will be established will be a range of consultative mechanisms. Critical is the peak consultative committee, which will have a range of relevant peak bodies on it. So, there will be an opportunity via ‑ whether it's VCOSS, the Centre, SAFVIC, and Safe and Equal - an opportunity for those representing sectors to be able to, at a system and strategic level, to have a dialogue with the Regulator, and that will be an opportunity, I think, for the sector peak bodies and leaders to be able to look at how they can support their members. Sitting underneath that will be three other reference groups, which will be important on two levels ‑ one, to be able to provide information up to the consultative committee – the reference groups will be for First Nations People, they will be for Lived Experience Service Users, and the third one will be for Service Providers, duty‑holders. So, there will be a range of mechanisms ‑ one to look at more on that system and strategic level, how we're engaging, and hopefully being able to then use that and share and support information across the subsectors. But also on a more operational level, for us to be able to get some feedback and have some dialogue, particularly from the duty‑holder perspective, that may either inform potentially our practice, but most importantly be able to be a mechanism to support our clear, simple, and useful information and guidance that hopefully means people are able to understand what they need to do and do it in the least ‑ sorry, in the most efficient, - and from all of our perspectives, least burdensome way possible. So, I think there will be a range of opportunities to do that. And then, of course, separately, each individual provider, duty‑holder, can, of course, speak to us as its Regulator if it has a specific, individual agency‑related question or query. So, I think there will be a range of opportunities for the individual sectors, and then also I suppose, really, from the kind of perspective of whether you're a service user representative, a duty‑holder, or First Nations people to input into that.
Audience Member 1: Interesting change of language too. "Duty‑holder" ‑ I think that's also going to be an interesting shift, I'm thinking. I'm not sure what it represents at this stage. But, you know, of course, there are duties and responsibilities held by everyone. Just curious as to what the language change means?
Jonathan Kaplan, Social Services Regulator: I can explain that. It's really two‑fold. One, is it is common, modern regulatory language. And secondly, it draws a distinction between those who are stakeholders and those who are duty‑holders. Because the relationship with the Regulator is different. So, for example, if you look at VCOSS, it's a stakeholder, it doesn't have any legal duties or obligations, and that shapes the particular nature of its relationship with the SSR as a Regulator. As opposed to organisations that are exactly as it says, duty‑holders. So, it's a very common lens that a whole range of regulators, particularly in Victoria and globally, are using, to be able to draw that distinction, so it clarifies the conversations we can have based on our roles and responsibilities so that we can work really well together.
Audience Member 1: Thanks.
Richard Marks, Director, Human Services Regulator: Thanks, Jan. There was one other question, which was answered in the chat. And I can't see any other hands up. Silence just for a minute. And that's enough awkward silence, I think. So, I will bring the session to a close there. Thanks, everyone, for joining us. Thanks to Jonathan, Anthony and Clare, and for everyone who submitted their questions. Thank you to Ali and Maxine, our Auslan interpreters, and to Bernadette, who's been captioning for us. Have a great afternoon. Thanks, everybody.
Jonathan Kaplan, Social Services Regulator: Thanks, Rich.
Anthony Kolmus, Director, Human Services Regulator: Thanks, Rich. Thanks, everyone.
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